Reid Urges Republicans to Drop EPA Limits in Budget Talks

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
urged Republicans to abandon their push for policy limits on the
Environmental Protection Agency in talks on a proposed $33
billion spending-cut plan designed to end debate on this year’s
budget.

“Neither the White House nor the Senate leaders are going
to accept any EPA riders they have in their bill,” Reid, a
Nevada Democrat, said in a conference call yesterday with
reporters.

The so-called riders added to a budget the Republican-controlled House passed in February include a provision barring
the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases and a ban on agency
plans to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Democrats and Republicans are working on a 2011 budget to
avoid a government shutdown when current spending authority ends
April 8. President Barack Obama said the administration and
congressional negotiators are “getting close to an agreement.”

Obama increased the pressure on lawmakers today, calling
Reid and House Speaker John Boehner and urging them to get the
budget impasse resolved.

“The president highlighted the progress that has been
made, but made clear that this process is running short on time,
and he urged both sides to reach a final solution and avoid a
government shutdown that would be harmful to our economic
recovery,” the White House said in a statement today.

No Agreement

Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said at a news conference his
goal is to cut spending, not close the government, even as he
said Republicans haven’t agreed to any aspects of a deal. “I am
not preparing for a government shutdown,” he said today.

Lawmakers have enacted $10 billion in cuts thus far for the
fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and the plan negotiators are
weighing would raise that total to about $33 billion.

“The speaker reminded the president that there is no
‘deal’ or agreement on a final number, and he will continue to
push for the largest possible spending cute,” Boehner’s
spokesman Michael Steel said in an e-mailed statement today.

Obama made a plea at an event yesterday in Landover,
Maryland, to keep the levels he has requested for government
spending on programs such as education, energy innovation and
infrastructure.

Economic Rivals

Even with efforts to cut the federal deficit, “it’s in our
national interest to make these investments” to compete with
economic rivals such as China and India, the president said.
“We can’t afford to fall behind.”

A number of differences are holding up a final deal.

The environmental policy directives sought by House
Republicans include one that would bar the EPA from moving ahead
with plans to classify fly ash -- a byproduct of coal-fired
power plants -- as hazardous waste. Other policy provisions,
including a ban on funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides
abortions, also are opposed by Democrats in any final deal, Reid
said.

“We have said time and time again that riders that are
ridiculous in nature -- and most of them are -- have no chance
of surviving,” said Reid.

The two sides disagree over whether to decrease spending
only for programs approved at Congress’s discretion, a step
favored by House Republicans who campaigned last year on pledges
to cut $100 billion in such domestic programs.

Mandatory Spending

Democrats are pushing to take as much as $13 billion of the
$33 billion from programs whose spending levels are mandated
outside yearly budgets, according to an official participating
in the talks. Such programs include the Medicaid and Medicare
entitlements as well as some initiatives important to
Republicans, such as farm aid and defense.

Republicans oppose cutting mandatory-spending money.
Boehner yesterday reiterated his view that “we’re dealing with
the discretionary part of the budget.”

Senate Democrats said many of the cuts must come from
entitlements, also called “mandatory” spending programs.

“We’re going to insist that mandatory savings be part of
any deal because otherwise the cuts become so deep on certain
programs that they cut to the bone,” said Senator Charles
Schumer of New York, the Senate’s third-ranking Democratic
leader.

Talks Continue

Talks on the budget will continue today and tomorrow,
Boehner said, while adding that he won’t be present for them.
“I am not going to be in D.C. for the negotiations this
weekend,” he said in his comments to reporters.

The possible deal is proving a tough sell with some House
Republican freshmen and other fiscal conservatives.

Representative Joe Walsh, a freshman Republican from
Illinois, said in an interview March 31 he wasn’t interested in
splitting the difference on budget cuts.

“The American people want us to be bolder than that,”
Walsh said. “I didn’t come here to just nickel and dime this
stuff.”

Boehner Reminder

Boehner yesterday reminded Tea Party-backed Republicans
that “there are a lot of problems with shutting the government
down,” and that “if you shut the government down, it will end
up costing more.” He also stressed the importance of moving on
to a debate over next fiscal year’s budget and plans to boost
the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

To dramatize their attacks on the Democrat-controlled
Senate for inaction, House Republicans yesterday passed symbolic
legislation that would deem their $61 billion package of
spending cuts as the law unless the Senate acts by April 6, two
days before the current government funding expires.

Democrats argued that the Government Shutdown Prevention
Act, which passed 221-202, is unconstitutional because it
wouldn’t require passage by both chambers of Congress for the
spending cuts to become law.

“We do not have a unicameral legislative body,” said
House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn of South
Carolina. He called the legislation an April Fool’s Day joke.
“I know it’s April 1,” he said. “So maybe that’s the point.”

Reid said talks must wrap up soon to keep government
agencies operating. Democrats and the White House, he said,
won’t support another stopgap measure late next week unless a
tentative deal has been reached.

“The only way we would have a short-term is if it were
necessary to finalize the paperwork on the agreement,” Reid
said. “Otherwise, we feel, and the president feels, that we
have had enough” stopgap bills.

Since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, Congress has
approved six temporary measures to keep the government going.